Changes ahead for Solix, CSU engines lab

The $18.5M expansion of CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory comes as current tenant Solix BioSystems shifts its focus and expands in Fort Collins.

Dec. 13, 2012

Solix BioSystems' former facility behind the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory is shown here. Solix is moving out, but relocating and expanding its headquarters to 500 E. Vine Drive in Fort Collins. / Courtesy of Solix BioSystems

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This drawing shows the concept of the expanded Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Lab expansion, an $18.5 million expansion that will add the new Powerhouse Energy Institute. / Courtesy of Colorado State University

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It may seem subtle, but Solix Biofuels’ name change to Solix BioSystems marked a broader shift as the rise in oil and natural gas production has curbed biofuel production.

Solix is currently in the process of relocating and expanding its headquarters from the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory on North College Avenue to 500 E. Vine Drive. With the move comes a new direction in the company’s products.

Founded in 2006, Solix is developing low-cost photobioreactors that allow algae to grow inside plastic bags suspended in the sunlight, instead of in open-pond conditions. The goal is to cheaply mass-produce oil derived from algae and convert it to biodiesel that could fuel vehicles and airplanes.

In 2010, Solix produced more than 3,000 gallons of algae oil per acre. But as recent oil and natural gas proliferation curbed demand and investment in biofuels, Solix has headed in a new direction.

The company, while still producing biofuels, is expanding its products to specialty chemicals to tap into a rapidly growing market. Solix is producing more renewable sources of natural polyunsaturated fatty acids, including Omega 3, beta-carotene and the high-value pigment Astaxanthin.

The Omega 3 is especially important to the company’s future, said Solix Chief Operating Officer Rich Schoonover.

“Biofuels, with discoveries of new natural gas, has fallen out of favor a bit,” Schoonover said. “We will continue to produce the biofuel aspect, but our longer-range goal of the company depends on the market.”

In August, Solix announced the completion of a $31 million financing package, led by existing investor I2BF Global Ventures.

“At Solix we are pleased to be making the transition from the product-development stage to commercialization stage of Solix’s evolution into a top tier bio-products company offering a range of products including biomass, biofuels, and high-value natural by-products,” Solix CEO Joel Butler said in a written statement.

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To coincide with its Fort Collins relocation, Solix plans to expand its operations.

The company is moving because CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory is expanding and building on Solix’s former site. Integral to such companies as Envirofit, Solix Biofuels, Spirae Inc., VanDyne SuperTurbo and Woodward, the lab had reached its limits in terms of space.

Sitting in his office on Wednesday, Schoonover noted the temporary furniture that fills his office as Solix officials work with the city in their attempt to bring operations online at the new location.

Unlike many businesses that only have to move personnel and office equipment when they relocate, Solix’s business revolves around its large above-ground swimming pools for algae.

While Solix’s former algae pools were 12-by-60 feet, Schoonover said they plan to install new pools in Fort Collins as large as the 12-by-120-foot pools it operates near Durango.

The company is still in the planning process with the city, which released its conceptual review comments Wednesday.

Sherry Albertson-Clark, Fort Collins interim planning manager, said that Solix is a somewhat unusual company from the standpoint of the algae pools.

While the company falls under the terms of use for the industrial area, its new site is in the Community Commercial North College District and the North College Corridor Plan and requires a minor amendment.

Ideally, Solix would like to lease its new property for at least two years, Schoonover said.

Powerhouse Energy Institute

As Solix moves on, its former location, the parking lot of the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Lab, is slated to become the new Powerhouse Energy Institute.

The $18.5 million expansion will transform the current power plant into a 90,000 square-foot Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certificated research complex. The addition will include classrooms, meeting space, labs, incubators, a visualization room and an environmental chamber.

Construction started on the expansion last week with foundation work expected to begin this week.

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The list of entities to be included in the new institute include: The Center for the New Energy Economy, Center for Energy & Global Health, Industrial Assessment Center, Gas Technology Consortium, Engines and Energy Conversion Lab, Advanced Biofuels Lab and the Electric Power Systems Lab.

To date, the CSU institute has raised more than $7 million for the expansion, including $5 million from the Bohemian Foundation, $2.5 million from Woodward, $227,000 from the Downtown Development Authority, $100,000 from the Gates Family Foundation and $200,000 from Encana.

The expansion is expected to take a year, during which CSU’s EECL Co-director Morgan DeFoort said current companies using the labs will carry on with business as usual.

“Fort Collins has achieved critical mass in energy,” DeFoort said. “I think this is going to be really turning the volume up on that initial critical mass.”

The hope is the new Institute will draw more students, faculty and ultimately startups to the region.

The lab has helped nurture Northern Colorado as an energy leader. Its current expansion would include a renovation of the original facility.